Rep. Matthew Harper

Existing law, the California Suicide Prevention Act of 2000, authorizes the State Department of Health Care Services to establish and implement a suicide prevention, education, and gatekeeper program to reduce the severity, duration, and incidence of suicidal behaviors. The act authorizes the State Department of Health Care Services to contract with an outside agency to establish and implement a targeted public awareness and education campaign on suicide prevention and treatment, and requires that target populations include junior high and high school students. Existing law requires the governing board or body of a county office of education, school district, state special school, or charter school that serves pupils in grades 7 to 12, inclusive, to, before the beginning of the 2017–18 school year, adopt a policy on pupil suicide prevention, as specified, that specifically addresses the needs of high-risk groups. Existing law requires the Instructional Quality Commission to consider developing, and recommending for adoption by the State Board of Education, a distinct category on mental health instruction to educate pupils about all aspects of mental health, including, among other things, depression and suicidal thoughts and behaviors, as specified. Existing law requires the Superintendent of Public Instruction to send a notice to each middle school, junior high school, and high school that encourages each school to provide suicide prevention training to each school counselor, provides information on the availability of certain suicide prevention training curriculum, informs schools about certain suicide prevention training, and describes how a school might retain those services. This bill would, commencing July 1, 2019, require a public school, including a charter school, that serves pupils in any of grades 7 to 12, inclusive, that issues pupil identification cards to include on the pupil identification cards the telephone number for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, the Crisis Text Line, and the school's campus police or security telephone number or, if the school does not have a campus police or security telephone number, the local nonemergency telephone number.

This measure would acknowledge the month of April 2018 as Child Abuse Prevention Month and encourage the people of the State of California to work together to support youth-serving child abuse prevention activities in their communities and schools.

This measure would designate the week of May 6, 2018, through May 12, 2018, as Compost Awareness Week.

This measure would dedicate the month of May 2018 as Maternal Mental Health Awareness Month.

This measure would proclaim the month of May 2018 as Lyme Disease Awareness Month.

This measure would designate May 29, 2018, as 529 College Savings Day, to raise awareness about the importance of saving for college with the help of 529 college savings plans.

This measure would recognize May 2018 as Blue Star Mothers of America Month in California, as specified.

This measure would urge lawmakers in Poland to reverse or revise a recent Polish law on speech related to the Holocaust, would call on Congress to join that effort, and would call for a renewed commitment to Holocaust education in California.